Conservation

5. Plenary - Homework

Required Resources

• Slides 15-18
• MOD Green Pack

Delivery

• Set a task that can be completed as homework or as a project in a separate lesson using the following notes.
• Students should imagine they are conservationists. They need to produce an awareness poster that raises public attention to a declining species or threatened habitat. They can use marsh fritillary butterflies or they can select another conservation issue.
• The class should brainstorm together. The MOD Green pack and Slides 16-17 may help students to select a topic. The MOD Green Pack is a collection of cards that are issued to troops exercising on Salisbury Plain to raise awareness of environmental issues. Each suit of cards has a theme covering 'ecology', 'archaeology', 'safety','best practice', all intended to minimise damage to the Plain by exercising troops. Alternatively they could research online and the useful links in the Teacher Notes are a good starting point. There may also be local conservation projects that could be promoted or issues within their own school.
• Use Slide 15-18 to set the task. The poster should raise awareness of the following:
• A species or habitat that is endangered
• Why we must conserve this species or habitat
• How we can conserve this species or habitat
• You could differentiate by outcome and use a level ladder to help students understand what is expected.
• Slide 16-17 provides some initial ideas about conservation action. Students should be as creative as possible. During this Episode you should instruct students to select the species that they are going to help conserve, tasking them with the poster design as homework or project work.
• Revise key learnings from the lesson by revisiting the questions on Slide 18 which were discussed in Episode 1: Do students think conservation is important?

Differentiation

Lower Ability:

The poster should name the species to be conserved, provide a simple explanation as to why species is useful or why it needs to be conserved and outline ways in which this conservation can take place. Two sources of info should be used.

Higher Ability:

The poster and oral presentation that could include the names of species to be conserved, link scientific ideas to why the species has to be conserved and the effect of its loss on other species and give detailed explanation of ways it can be conserved on a local and global level (if appropriate). Several named sources should be mentioned.